hint which he

others was uncelerating the ised the early tre that, in his esulted from a e persons," he or the sake of a discoveries till

temper which rked also, that objects of Nae has enforced, derations that nts in the na elves, but are ■. He strenuagreeable reoverstrain the igh-born, and

the anxieties benefits of its -ement of new the deduction tant; but as lectual power to the highest s of such inrospects, that e, as in them

of an indivi

studies must

estley it may

er range over e. In devo

ortion of his

the Philosophical Character of Dr Priestley.

11

This is

felt to be his primary duty as a minister of religion.
not the fit occasion to pronounce an opinion of the fruits of
those inquiries, related as they are to topics which still con-
tinue to be agitated as matters of earnest controversy. In
Ethics, in Metaphysics, in the philosophy of Language and in
that of General History, he expatiated largely. He has given
particular histories of the Sciences of Electricity and of Optics,
characterized by strict impartiality, and by great perspicuity of
language and arrangement. Of the mathematics, he appears
to have had only a general or elementary knowledge; nor, per-
haps, did the original qualities, or acquired habits, of his mind
fit him to excel in the exact sciences. On the whole, though
Dr Priestley may have been surpassed by many, in vigour of
understanding and capacity for profound research, yet it would
be difficult to produce an instance of a writer more eminent
for the variety and versatility of his talents, or more meritorious
for their zealous, unwearied, and productive employment.

APPENDIX.

Since the foregoing pages were written, I have added a few remarks on a passage contained in a recent work of Victor Cousin, in which that writer has committed a material error as to the origin of Dr Priestley's philosophical discoveries. "La

chimie," he observes, " est une création du dixhuitième siècle, une création de la France; c'est l'Europe entière qui a appelé chimie Française le mouvement qui a imprimé à cette belle science une impulsion si forte et une direction si sage; c'est à l'exemple et sur les traces de Lavoisier, de Guyton, de Fourcroy, de Berthollet, de Vauquelin, qui se sont formés et que marchent encore les grands chimistes étrangers, ici Priestley et Davy; là Klaproth et Berzelius." (Cours de l'Histoire de la Philosophie, tom i. p. 25.)

It is to be lamented that so enlightened a writer as Victor Cousin, yielding, in this instance, to the seduction of national vanity, should have advanced pretensions in behalf of his countrymen, which have no foundation in truth or justice. Nothing can be more absurd or unprofitable than to claim honours

in science, either for individuals or for nations, the title may be at once set aside by an appeal to public and records. 4ojt

It was in England, not in France, that the first de vances were made in our knowledge of elastic fluids. nothing of anterior writers, Dr Black had traced the acquired by alkalies, and by certain earths, to their be from combination with fixed air; and Mr Cavendish, had enlarged our knowledge of that gas and of infl air. In England, the value of these discoveries was preciated; in France, little or no attention was paid till the philosophers of that country were roused by the phenomena exhibited by the experiments of Priestley. L it is true, had been led, by an examination of evidence from previous writers, to discard the hypothesis of phl The discovery of oxygen gas by Dr Priestley not only co the demonstration of its fallacy, but served as the corn of a more sound and consistent theory. By a series of res executed at great expense, and with consummate sk French philosopher verified in some cases, and corre others, the results of his predecessors, and added new a portant observations of his own. Upon these uni founded that beautiful system of general laws, chiefly to the absorption of oxygen by combustible bodies, and constitution of acids, to which alone the epithet of the phlogistic or French theory of chemistry is properly a Of the genius manifested in the construction of that syste the taste apparent in its exposition, it is scarcely poss speak with too much praise. But it is inverting the order to assert, that it had any share in giving origin to the rese of Priestley, which were not only anterior to the French t but were carried on under the influence of precisely op views. This, too, may be asserted of the discoveries of So who, at the same period with Dr Priestley, was following distant part of Europe, a scarcely less illustrious career.

It is the natural progress of most generalizations in sc that, at first too hasty and comprehensive, they require

narrowed as new facts arise

This has happened to the ti

he title to which ic and authentic

irst decided adfluids. To say d the causticity heir being freed ndish, in 1766, of inflammable es was fully aps paid to them, by the striking tley. Lavoisier, vidence derived s of phlogiston. only completed the corner-stone ies of researches mate skill, the and corrected in d new and imese united, he chiefly relating lies, and to the et of the Antioperly applied. hat system, and ely possible to me order of time o the researches French theory, cisely opposite -ries of Scheele, following, in a

the Philosophical Character of Dr Priestley.

13

that combustion is not necessarily accompanied with an absorption of oxygen, and that acids exist independently of oxygen, regarded by him as the general acidifying principle. But after all the deductions that can justly be made on that account from the merits of Lavoisier, he must still hold one of the highest places among those illustrious men, who have advanced chemistry to its present rank among the physical sciences. It is deeply to be lamented that his fame, otherwise unsullied, should have been stained by his want of candour and justice to Dr Priestley, in appropriating to himself the discovery of oxygen gas. This charge, often preferred and never answered, would not have been revived in this place, but for the claim so recently and indiscreetly advanced by M. Victor Cousin. To the credit of Dr Priestley it may be observed, that in asserting his own right, he exercised more forbearance than could reasonably have been expected under such circumstances In an unpublished letter to a friend, he thus alludes to the subject of M. Lavoisier's plagiarism. "He," (M. Lavoisier) " is an Intendant of the Finances, and has much public business, but finds leisure for various philosophical pursuits, for which he is exceedingly well qualified. He ought to have acknowledged that my giving him an account of the air I had got from Mercurius Calcinatus, and buying a quantity of M. Cadet while I was at Paris, led him to try what air it yielded, which he did presently after I left. I have, however, barely hinted at this in my second volume.*" The communication

alluded to was made by Dr Priestley to M. Lavoisier in October 1774; and the memoir, in which the latter assumes to himself the discovery that mercurius calcinatus (red oxide of mercury) affords oxygen gas when distilled per se, was not read to the Academy of Sciences before April 1775 +. In evincing so little irritability about his own claim, and leaving its vindication with calm and just confidence to posterity, the English philosopher has lost nothing of the honour of that discovery, which is now awarded to him, by men of science of every country, as solely and undividedly his own.

Letter to the late Mr Henry, dated Calne, December 31. 1775.

+ See an Abstract of this Memoir in the Journal de Rozier, Mai 1775.

el dotter Account of the Russian Vapour-Bath. By T. S. TRAI Communicated by the Author.*

THE existence in Hamburgh of two establishments Russian Vapour-Bath is used, brought to my recolle descriptions given by Acerbi, and other travellers, of t heat and sudden transition to cold, so much relished b tions of Northern Europe, and raised my curiosity t ence in my own person the effects of this singular s bathing. I was further induced to take this step from myself suddenly oppressed with a violent feverish co raised my pulse considerably above 100°, and rendere tle able to join the public dinner-table in the Apollo Sa Accompanied by two friends who wished to make experiment, I repaired to the ALEXANDERBAD, which the direction of its proprietor, a Jewish physician, liberally opened it gratuitously to the members of the S Naturforscher, then assembled at Hamburgh. We we ed into a very neat saloon, provided with six couches each of which stood a dressing table, and a convenient tus for suspending the clothes of the bather. Here dressed, and were furnished with long flannel dressing-go warm slippers, after which we were all conducted into hot apartment, where we were desired to lay aside our and slippers, and were immediately introduced into t called the bath, in which the dim light admitted thr single window of three panes, just sufficed to shew there were in it two persons, like ourselves in puris n bus; one of whom was an essential personage, the opera other a gentleman just finishing the process by a copio sion of cold water over his body. This sudden introduc to an atmosphere of hot steam was so oppressive, tha forced to cover my face with my hands, to moderate th ful impression on the lips and nostrils, and was comp withdraw my head, as much as possible, from the most

TRAILL, M. D.

nents where the recollection the 's, of the intense ished by the naiosity to experiçular species of ep from finding rish cold, which rendered me litpollo Saal.

make the same which is under sician, who had

of the Society of

We were ushercouches, beside

venient apparaHere we unssing-gowns and ted into a small side our gowns I into the room tted through a shew us that puris naturalie operator, the a copious affuIntroduction inive, that I was erate the painas compelled to he most heated

Dr Traill on the Russian Vapour-Bath.

15

part of the atmosphere, by sitting down on a low bench which ran along two sides of the bath.

At first our modesty felt some alarm at our perfect nudity, and that of those around us; but I soon felt that it would be absolutely impossible to endure the contact of any sort of covering of our nakedness in a temperature so high; and consoled myself with the reflection, that it was no worse than the promiscuous bathing I had so often practised at the sea-baths of Liverpool; an exposure which, notwithstanding my passion for bathing, was always disagreeable at the commencement of each season; but to which custom had soon rendered me indifferent.

The bath-room is about 15 feet long, by about as much in breadth. It is lined with wood, rendered quite black by constant immersion in hot steam. On two sides it has three tiers of benches, or rude couches, each of which is calculated to hold two persons, with their feet toward each other. ; so that twelve persons might bathe as the same time. The lowest bench projects farthest into the room; they rise two feet above each other; and each has a wooden pillow at the ends.

In one corner of the farther end of the apartment stands the furnace, which is supplied with fuel from without, and has a thin arch of fire-brick turned over the fire, against which the flame reverberates, until the arch is red hot. Over this arch is built a small brick chamber, the only aperture to which is by a small door about two feet long, and fifteen inches wide, opening nearly to the level of the arch. To increase the heated surface, numerous small earthen jars, or broken pottery, are piled on the arch, and all are kept up to a low red heat. On these, a basin of water is occasionally dashed; and the clouds of steam which instantly issue from the door of the heated chamber, form the source of heat employed to maintain the temperature of the bath.

In the corner opposite to the furnace is a reservoir of cold water, into which the person who manages the bath frequently, during our stay in the bath, plunged to cool his surface; a precaution not unnecessary for an individual who is exposed daily eight hours, stark naked, to a temperature quite oppressive to the uninitiated. Yet this exposure and this alternation cannot be unhealthy: for I never saw a more athletic man than